To Avoid Korean Law, YouTube Disables Some Features

YouTube’s cat-and-mouse game with governments abroad continues.

To avoid a South Korean law that would require users who upload or comment on videos to first register with their real names, YouTube last week disabled those two features on its local Korean site, according to the company. The move garnered new attention Monday, after it was reported by a Korean publication, Hankyoreh.

Scott Rubin, a spokesman for YouTube parent Google (GOOG), said it devised the compromise because it believes in users’ rights to be anonymous online. He notes that users in Korea can upload and comment on videos by changing their country settings to another geographic zone. And users of the Korean site can still watch videos anonymously.

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